Free Weird Tales volume 31 number 03 by 1888–1940 Farnsworth Wright Page A

that his gun was, indeed, powerless to harm Stepan. . . . Dmitri was grinning broadly.
    "Watch these men closely, Stepan, and usher them from my house. Should they attempt any tricks do not hesitate to shoot. After all, they are here against my will, and they have threatened me."
    The servant Stepan, only a slight tinge of color in his cheeks revealing that he felt any interest whatever in the proceedings, gestured with the small automatic. And in that instant Peters whipped to the floor, his hands grasped the end of the strip of carpet on which Stepan stood, his body jerked backward.
    His arms wildly flailing, Stepan plunged to his hands and- knees; the automatic skittered across the floor. And suddenly Dmitri, half lifting himself from his chair, was babbling unintelligible, fear-ridden words. Ethredge, as Peters rose to his feet, had pounced upon the outsplayed servant, pinioning him to the floor; Peters, his right hand at his hip, swung alertly toward Dmitri.
    "I've — got him, Peters," Ethredge gasped, the little man beneath him no match for the Commissioner's sinewy strength. And chill, shuddery horror abruptly swept him as he realized that this man he touched, this squirming, writhing thing beneath his hands, was invulnerable to lead or to flame, a being that could be overpowered, but that could not be destroyed! "Wbat'H I do with him?"
    Grimly Peters snarled, "Hold on to him. I'll handle this death-ridden diabetic!"
    His service automatic a blue-steel menace in his right hand, Peters walked to the table. With his left hand he lifted the receiver from the telephone and dialed a number. Warily he stooped over the table as he spoke, presently, with Mary Roberts. Then he cradled the receiver and sat down, facing the colossus.
    "She will come here, at once."
    Seemingly, Dmitri had collapsed. His shapeless hands lay limply on the chair
    THE THING ON THE FLOOR
    293
    arms, his great chest heaved gulpingly; only the snaky brightness in his darting ebon eyes warned Peters that his tremendous brain was thinking, planning, calculating with chain-lightning rapidity. The servant Stepan was only spasmodically struggling.
    Peters spoke abruptly to Ethredge.
    "When Mary comes someone will have to admit her. Can you keep this devil covered while I go to the door?"
    Ethredge, crouching across the servant's chest, his knees crushing the man's shoulders against the floor, nodded. . . .
    Silence, rolling on with interminable slowness, gripped the room. Gradually the rattle of Dmitri's breathing was growing quiet; he sat now in his chair like some obscene, waiting idol, his face an undecipherable mask.
    From beyond the tight-closed door a bell faintly tinkled. Peters edged toward Ethredge, slipped his automatic into the Commissioner's outstretched hand. Then he was gone. . . .
    Dmitri did not move. A minute passed; to Ethredge it seemed as though all the suspense of myriad ages was bound up in that brief span. Then the door re-opened and Peters, followed by Mary Roberts, re-entered the room. Mary's fair, oval face was a composite of bewilderment and apprehension; in the instant that she glimpsed the tableau within the room her slender body trembled violently and the color drained from her face, leaving it white as new paper. But then her straight, strong young spine stiffened and her firm little jaw set hard. Pale though she was, she glanced inquiringly at Ethredge.
    "Charles " she whispered.
    Shakily, Ethredge smiled. He nodded toward Dmitri, bloated, swollen, huddled inscrutably in his chair.
    "I'll have to tell you—now, Mary," he said slowly. "Try to understand. On the
    night that you came here with Helen Stacey-Forbes, Dmitri ensnared you. He cast a—spell over you. We have come here, we have asked you to come here—■ we are going to force him to release you."
    Mary, staring at her sweetheart, was frowning. Almost musingly she spoke.
    "I have had—terrible dreams," she said, her voice low, "dreams in which he told me to